Goodbye, my friend
by hadou4-byakurai
Summary: written from both Rangiku's and Gin's POV, shortly after when Gin met Aizen and joined him. How did their friendship "end"? addressed in this story : Rangi-Gin, not very sure what they'd have called each other, please comment if there's a mistake :


He was there, sitting by the pool as usual, his silver hair glinting in the sun. She walked over apprehensively. He had sounded so serious when he called her to meet him here. Like he meant business--and urgent one too. Transfixed by musing over what the silver-haired man had said, Rangiku Matsumoto stumbled on a tiny mound in the ground and fell, but strong arms held her up. "Thanks, Gin." She did not have to look up to know those hands, the hands that fed her when she fainted as a child, the hands that pulled her through the throngs at the Shinigami halls. Shaking her long blond strands of hair behind her ears, she looked up at him. He was looking away, like he used to so long ago, turning away from her again without telling her why, and the unaccustomed silence between them was almost unbereable. "Rangiku, I..." Gin started, turning towards her but stopping at the last moment and dashing down to the water edge.  
Rangiku was puzzled. This old Gin that she had not seen since the days in Rukongai was back, the Gin who was nervous, the Gin who didn't tell her anything. Yet, he looked sad, and even... apprehensive about what he was going to do, what was he going to do?

Gin stood at the water edge, looking out to the murky fog that had gathered. He didn't know how to tell Rangiku, how to sever the bond that had taken to long to build. Aizen-taichou had told him to do it fast or it would get harder over time, but he had trouble being the cold Gin, the Gin that he knew Aizen needed. He knew how much Rangiku needed him, how much Rangiku loved the person that he was now.  
And now he had to admit it, it all boiled down to how much he needed Rangiku. He could hardly bear to let all this fade away. Mustering all his courage, he made to turn around and tell her--then he felt the soft arms circling his body, and gasped in surprise and unwished-for-joy. "Gin, what's wrong? Just tell me, I'll do my best to help okay?" No, his heart cried out, you can't help me. Wanting you to help me makes it worst, saying you want to help me worsens the dull pain I feel already, Rangiku, I hope that you can understand...I'll never hurt you, I'll never stop supporting you... He flung her hand away.

"Rangiku, let's stop being friends okay? You aren't good enough for me. " Stop being friends. The words didn't register. Couldn't register. Wouldn't register in Rangiku's mind. She knew that Gin was better at school than her, better at so many other things than her, but she had never thought she was the inferior. It just didn't seem right that two childhood friends could end up like that. So she laughed. "Nice one, Gin. Very funny"  
The pain that broke across his face as he pushed his hands through his hair in helplessness made the smile slid off her face.  
"Gin?" Her voice sounded small, like it was about to break any moment.

He couldn't stand it any longer. He turned and shunpo-ed back up the hill to the institute, leaving a shock still Rangiku standing there.  
Don't you know that you mean everything to me? That you are the one person in the world, living or dead, that I could never stop needing? Its so that you won't get hurt, Aizen-taichou said. If you let bonds form so easily, when it becomes time to break it away, it'll hurt her more. He believed Aizen-taichou. After all, who wouldn't? He was trustable, his vision so honourable, to uplift the hollows, that he couldn't help but love it. He had always been power-hungry, since young, looking up, hoping to step up, and now here was the man who could help him. Couldn't Rangiku have joined him, you might ask? He knew that Rangiku would never join him in this kind of task. For Rangiku, hollows were meant to be the victims of her sword, not her comrades. He was up the hill. Resisting the need to turn back, knowing that Rangiku would be right behind him as soon as she recovered, knowing that he'd have to face her pleading eyes, he broke off every strand of the bond they shared. At the very least, the bonds that could be seen by others. Goodbye, my friend. 


End file.
